week, whatever you think of it, could have a huge affect on november. it's going to teach all that dirty, angry money, all those people who love influencing america and american politics, all the while keeping themselves shy of the spotlight, that they can get away with it. > good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show," tonight from new york. is it really about jobs? then mitt romney, where is your party? this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> with america in crisis, with 23 million people out of work or stopped looking for work, he hasn't put forward a plan to get us working again >> mitt romney is running for president of fantasyland, with his latest claim on jobs. ben labolt of the obama campaign responds tonight. >> let's get to work! governor rick scott is officially refusing to stop his voter purge. the attorney general is responding. we'll have the latest from

florida. >> we will make sure that the federal law is enforced. and we have to enforce the law to protect the rights of american citizens. and it's the biggest lawsuit in sports history. 2,000 former players are suing the nfl over their handling of brain injuries. i'll ask the nation's dan zurin if they have a case. good to have you with us. thanks for watching. republicans think they can beat president obama by just hammering him on the issue of jobs and jobs performance. but the president made it clear today that he's not going to be running away from his jobs record. >> we're still fighting our way back from the worst economic recession since the great depression. >> it's all about the numbers. the obama campaign put out a new tv ad today, highlighting the bureau of labor statistics, the figure of 4.3 million new private sector jobs. president obama was in las vegas

today, asking congress, why have you not helped create more jobs? >> i told congress months ago, let's pass a bill to put hundreds of thousands of construction workers and contractors back to work, rebuilding america, rebuild roads and bridges and new schools for rising populations and that's good for the economy now, it's good for the economy later. there's no excuse for congress to just shrug its shoulders. let's get it done. >> but mitt romney wants to erase president obama's job proposals from history. >> with 23 million people out of work, or stopped looking for work, he hasn't put forward a plan to get us working again. now, i know we're getting close to an election, so he'll come out with one soon, but 3 1/2 years later, we're waiting. >> do you want to talk about the political divide in this country? i have just shown you a couple of sound bites that are totally

different. totally set of facts. and i have to say that mitt romney is so far off base, it's misleading to the american people to do this. i guess we're here tonight to refresh mitt romney's memory. the president proposed the american jobs act in 2011. this is a fact. i think i was covering the news when this was taking place. this was a $450 billion plan that would have created at least $1.3 million jobs and as many as 2 million jobs. what happened? well, it was rejected by the republicans. that's a fact. despite its bipartisan proposals. now, the full bill was introduced on the senate floor, this is a fact, october 11th, 2011. a partial bill, another one for teachers and first responders, that was introduced on october 17th. i promise you, folks, i'm not making this up. an infrastructure jobs bill was introduced on october 31st. my friends, all three bills failed to receive enough support from republicans to proceed.

here's what republicans did pass in the house. maybe mitt should be talking about this. a useless bill to repeal the health care law, a bill to defund national public radio. hold it right there. how many of your neighbors have been complaining about npr? i mean, okay, no taxpayer funding for the abortion act. that was another dandy that they had to get. now, this week, the house republicans, just this week, forced another vote on lightbulb efficiency standards. now, hold it right there. now, larry, if you're talking to harry over the garden, you know, after work, you run into your neighbor, do you talk about lightbulbs? i mean, where is the government?! why is -- and now, of course, you've got mitt romney out there campaigning, saying, well, president obama hasn't done anything. there's three positives right there that were shot down by the republicans because of the political divide in the country.

how do we tone this frustration down as americans? the republicans will vote on anything but jobs. this isn't the first time mitt romney claimed the president's job-growing policies just don't work. here's mitt romney on the stimulus package in 2009. >> you have to recognize that the stimulus that the president and congress passed is not what's helped this economy. >> but yesterday, just yesterday, the president of the nonpartisan congressional budget office testified at a house hearing about the stimulus package. he said a vast majority of the nation's economists, a vast majority, that means a lot of the nation's economists believe that the stimulus created jobs. >> because of the recovery act, the unemployment rate was lower at the end of 2010 than it would have been without the stimulus bill. 80% of the respondents, 80% agreed or strongly agreed with that statement.

>> right, so the issue. >> only 4% disagreed or strongly disagreed. >> federal reserve chief ben bernanke gave his own testimony today. he said the fed can't rescue the economy by itself. you know what has to happen? congress is going to have to get on the stick and get something done. >> monetary policy is not a panacea. it would be much better to have a broad-based policy effort addressing a whole variety of issues. i leave the details to congress, who has considered many of these issues. so i would be much more comfortable if, in fact, congress would take some of this burden from us and address those issues. >> now, that's a very academic way of larry saying to harry over the hedge row in the backyard after they got off work, gosh, i wish those guys would work together in washington and do something about jobs. the republican-appointed federal reserve chairman went to the hill to tell republicans that

they are on the wrong page. congress needs to spend money to make money. that's what the economy needs right now. the proof is in the results of the first stimulus in 2009. we don't want to make anything up now. steve bennett of maddow blog put these charts together. they're very easy to see. this is the nation's gross domestic product before and after the stimulus, okay? the red is for the bush years, the blue is for the obama years. look at what happened when the stimulus kicked in. same thing with private sector job growth. the stimulus starts, jobs, what do they do? they start to come back. and wall street has done, i think, pretty well since the stimulus. mitt romney can say president obama has no jobs plan, but it's obvious the president's plans when he got some cooperation worked. what are we against? why are we against success in this country? well, it's all about politics.

it's also obvious republicans want to prevent the president from having any plan work right now. hell, it's june. we've got an election coming up. we can stall this thing until november. it is more important to beat him than it is to help the country. now, let's take a real close look at this. you wall streeters, you know, look, where are the numbers? well, let's see. this is the one i like. this is where the stock market was in march of '09. here we go. all the way, over 11,000 and where it closed today. folks, look, the guys in the backyard after work who talk over to the hedge, hey, charlie, how's it going? oh, not too good. how about those guys in washington? they can't get a damned thing done. well, here's what's happens. you have got two political parties who are just like this and they're not going to give up and they don't care about american workers. you can put plan after plan after plan on the table, which

the president has done, and you're going to have the opponent out on the campaign trail saying, we haven't done anything. facts don't matter to these folks. because they're going to have enough money out there to stick in those guys in the backyard to say, oh, hell, obama's not doing anything. no, the president has tried to do everything, but it's been total obstruction. and who's paying the price? we are? how do we get solutions when we have people who are on the payroll? we must remind everybody that these congressional members are on the payroll to serve the public. but you see, they want to stop everything, because they want to make sure that obama's put in a bad light and they can win the white house and get the power of the government back. get your cell phophones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, are republicans more concerned with the president's failure than

creating jobs? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. joining me tonight is ben labolt, national press secretary for the obama campaign 2012. very basic, ben. how can romney go out there and the republicans go out there and get away, after day saying, you know, the president has no plan. it's easy to pick up the research here of what we just did. it's very easy to see what was introduced, when it was introduced, what it was targeted for, and what it would have done. but your opponent is out there saying, hasn't done anything. how do you not let him get away with it? >> that's a good question. there is a candidate in this race who doesn't have a plan to create jobs, and it's mitt romney. he's been telling voters he has a 50-point economic plan, but it's just filled with warmed-over republican rhetoric and things we've tried before and haven't spurred job creation. things like $5 trillion tax cuts

for the wealthiest, repealing wall street reform and leaving the middle class held hostage to the sorts of risky financial deals that put our entire economy at risk. the president's had this plan to create over a million jobs on the table since last fall. it would address specific weaknesses that we saw in last month's jobs report. it would put public sector workers back to work. teachers in classrooms, cops on the street. it's got an infrastructure plan in there that we could get construction workers to work. so we know what we need to do right now. the president's got the plan to do it. and congress is absolutely being obstructionist here and needs to get this done. >> well, i would like the american people to view this for what it is. this is an admission of guilty, i think, on the part of the republicans. because they know they're wrong. if they go along with this, it

will create jobs, and that's the last thing they want to do right now. i want to go back to december of 2008. this is what mitt romney wrote in the "national review." "the democrats may want to wait for obama, but the country needs action now. republicans can and must play an important role in shaping a stimulus bill that makes sense for america and lays a foundation for future prosperity and growth." here we go again! will the real mitt romney please stand up? why don't more people know about this? this is actually a major flip-flop on the part of mitt romney, isn't it? >> it really is. he called for stimulus funding at the time. he knew it was absolutely essential to get our economy moving again and to create jobs. and the fact is he's run away from that just like he's run away from health care reform, something that he passed in his state, included an individual mandate in it, said it should

serve as a national model. it did. it was his signature accomplishment in massachusetts, and he doesn't talk about it anymore. but let's take a look at other things that he's walking away from. his massachusetts record. you know, he's been out there saying he's a job creator, saying he has job creation plans on the table. he made those same promises in 2002 when he was running for office in massachusetts. and that didn't work out. massachusetts slipped from 36th to 47th out of 50 in job creation. the deficit exploded. >> all right. there's no doubt, i think the campaign is going to have to continue to get the truth out about jobs, because they got a lot of money to convince people that president obama hasn't done anything. which takes me to the fund-raising. what about the last month? they raised more money, the romney campaign is getting the leg up on president obama. does this concern you at this

point? >> well, we always anticipated that once he secured the nomination, the combination of the romney campaign and the rnc would outraise us that month. they can go back to all of the donors that gave during the on, it helps keep my period out of sight. hi. so i can stand out. new tampax radiant. and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? [ meows ] or if a tree falls on your car and no one's around to answer your call, do you make a sound? the answer is probably "yes" [ growling ] and "like a howler monkey." unless you're calling esurance. they have live humans on the phones to help 24/7. so you might make different sounds, like happy human sounds. esurance. insurance for the modern world. click or call.

coming up, new proof that the republican messaging on health care is working. so what are the democrats going to do to fight back against that? well, jonathan alter weighs in. he's got some ideas. florida governor rick scott won't stop his voter purge, despite the justice department's request. there are new details tonight, including a response from attorney general eric holder. and it's the largest lawsuit in sports history. over 2,000 former nfl players are suing the league for misleading players about the dangers of concussions. sports writer dave zurin will join me later. share your thoughts on twitter at #edshow. we're coming right back. i know guys that work in the auto industry, and they're just not covered because they work in brake dust so they've never been able to get insurance. now they're 30 or 35, they've never been able to get insurance before, and now they have it. that seems like a good thing. >> welcome back to "the ed show." do you think jay leno may be

better talking about health care than the democrats? because the latest poll on the affordable health care act doesn't really look very good. what's happening here? 41% believe that the entire law should be overturned by the supreme court when its decision comes out later this month. 27% want the mandate overturned, but not the entire law. and only 24% want to see the entire law upheld. now, a couple of things to point out here. first of all, on the bright side, 51%, they do not want to see the entire law overturned. but 27% who want to see only the mandate thrown out don't seem to understand how devastating it would be to the rest of the health care law. now, as you can see from this graph, the percentage wanting to see the entire lawn overturned has increased a bit since the supreme court heard oral arguments on the case in march. were they paying attention to it. was the public on top of these oral arguments to the point they were turned off? let's turn to jonathan alter. what do you make of this shift? great to have you with us. it's been a while >> this is just so perplexing, because you would think at least part of the

message of health care would be sinking in by now, especially the most popular parts of it, you know, prescription drug help for seniors. letting your kids stay on your insurance until they're it have years old. banning description against sick people, a terrible form of discrimination, against people who have pre-existing condition, of whom there are millions. so obviously there were huge messaging failures that the president has the admitted on the democratic side, but i think at this point it's just economic anxiety. people really don't want to hear about anything except for how the government might help them get a job. >> after the health care heavy lift in 2000 and 2010, then it was all about jobs in a big, big way. we've just gotten away from talking about it. the obama campaign has gotten away from talking about it. maybe people are forgetting all the good things. and then, of course, it's in

front of the supreme court, which is in the minds of many, i think, a negative. and now it's almost like a reintroduction about how good this is. how hard is that going to be? >> well, it's going to be tough. and i think the obama campaign is maybe shying away from it too much. because their polling shows similar sorts of results, like, this is a loser for us. people don't like to pay for people who are uninsured, even though they're already paying when they go to the emergency room. but here's the thing ed, i think a lot of people don't understand. if you take the number of voters, of people between the ages of 22, when they get out of college, they're no longer covered by the college health service, and 26, it's between 10 and 15 million people. now, that's obama's base. that's the heart of his base, those young people. and they have to be convinced that it is on the line for them

and their parents as well, who will be having to pick up the cost of their insurance if this is invalidated or overturned on day one of a romney administration. >> well, on the line, that's the key phrase right here. because if the supreme court overturns the individual mandate, important protections are going to fall apart, like the pre-existing conditions. now, here's senator jeff sessions of alabama on the senate floor, part of fox news coverage today, throwing it at us. here it is. >> i sense, and a lot of my colleagues share this view, that the president himself, democratic colleagues in the house and the senate, their friends in the media and liberal government pro-health care advocates have stepped up, undignified, not justified attacks on the court. >> bullying? attacks on the court? it shouldn't even in the supreme court. this is all just part of taking down an accomplishment by the

president. that's what i see. >> and these are the same conservatives that attacked, you know, judicial activists legislating from the bench, liberal jurists. they slammed the supreme court so much, you know, when decisions would go against them and their interests, it's just another example of their hypocrisy to go after anybody who would criticize the court. but it doesn't really matter, it opportunity affect the decision. they're going to decide in the next few days, possibly what they're going to decide. and that will play 52-card pickup, very possibly, with this whole issue, throw the entire health care system into chaos. because even if they only overturn the individual mandate, ed, that pulls a thread on the whole blanket of one-seventh of the american economy. and we have a completely chaotic situation. if you're an insurance company and there's no individual

mandate, you can't stay in business. you know, because if you don't have a bigger pool, you can't cover -- you can't stay in business. so it will just create utter chaos through the system. >> it will. i mean, the whole thing they tried to do with health care is to get more people covered, to get better outcomes medically, and to bring the costs down over time. it's another messaging issue. it's a heavy lift between now and the election and it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. jonathan, great to have you with us tonight, thank you. up next, florida governor rick scott is picking a fight with not only one, but two democratic agencies. bob shrum will join me for the discussion. jeb bush is looking back at the primary season with regret and his older brother has some tough new poll numbers. we'll have the latest ton bad news for the bush brothers when we come back. stay with us.

welcome back to "the ed show". now, the state of florida, interesting outfit here. they are picking a fight with not one but two federal agencies, all in an effort to purge thousands of voters from the state's voting rolls and potentially turn florida solid red in november. that's the mission here. governor rick scott says his administration will not comply, will not comply with a department of justice order to stop purging voters. now his secretary of state, ken dempster, is accusing the department of homeland of security of violating the law by denying the state access to a federal citizenship database. now, the department of justice has warned the scott administration their efforts to scrub voters from the rolls is

hasn't deterred scott and his team. here's attorney general from florida, pam bon ty. >> we're going to keep fighting and we have governor rick scott, he's tough, he believes in what we're doing. we're stonewalled right now, but, you know, my words to the department of justice are, shouldn't we all want legal people to vote and not illegal people? >> but scott's purge list is riddled with all kinds of errors. the state's election supervisors, both democrats and republicans, have said that they will not continue the purge, because there are just too many variables with the entire process. but despite the bipartisan pushback in the state of florida, the florida secretary of state has sent the department of justice a letter, claiming that the department of justice is at fault and has violated federal law. as "the miami herald" put it, the letter all but dares the justice can department to sue

the state of florida for allegedly violating the 1965 voting rights act and the 1993 national voter registration act. dempster also accuses the department of homeland security for not allowing access to a federal database for voter registration checking. now, "the miami herald" reports florida attorney general pam bondi, who you just heard and saw, hasn't ruled out suing homeland security to gain access to that database. and now some right-wingers are siding with scott and accusing the department of justice of playing politics. but attorney general eric holder isn't buying their argument. >> the notion that this is somehow a political ploy is inconsistent. at base, we have to enforce the law, a law that was designed by this congress or its predecessor to protect the rights of american citizens. that's what our action is all about, to protect the rights of american citizens.

>> for more, i'm joined by democratic strategist, professor at nyu, bob shrum. okay, we've got attorneys, you've got attorneys, let's go fight. what's happening here? >> look, the first thing i've got to say that rick scott knows something about fraud, because he was involved in the biggest medicare fraud in history. but there's no evidence of voter fraud in florida. the officials in the state say it. they go down the list. i think there have been only a few cases in the last ten years. this is really an attempt to go back to the post-reconstruction south, to pass jim crow laws on voting that disenfranchise african-americans and hispanics. it's the disenfranchisement as a way to dominate, because they don't want these new folks or these folk who is suddenly have the power and the vote to be heard, because it threatens their vision of america. you know, we do have, as you said, federal laws here.

the confederacy did not win the civil war. and those laws ought to be enforced. george wallace stood in a schoolhouse door. now you've got rick scott standing in the polling house door. he should be held to account. >> this is all about winning florida. and they come back and say, everyone should want fair elections. what's your response to that? >> first, there's no evidence that we have unfair elections. there's no evidence there's any kind of widespread voter fraud or even very minor voter fraud. the other thing they keep doing, by the way, because they keep saying that illegal immigrants are voting, they're trying to pick at that scab. this is where the tea party people go. it's the politics of grievance. it's all this stuff about give us back our country, obama is alien, different, strange. there is no evidence that this needs to be done. there is massive evidence that

it will differently discriminate against african-americans and minorities, and it's illegal! >> now, holder is going to be accused of being the political pawn of the president, but he's got the law on his side. he cannot back down at all. he has got to go to the firewall on this. >> look, republicans -- the accusation that somebody's being a political pawn comes with ill grace from people who stole florida in 2000 and who used the secretary of state in that state to do it. holder needs to enforce the law. the voting rights act is very clear, the 1993 act on voting is very clear. you cannot pass laws that make it very difficult -- by the way, not just for many african-americans and not just for many minorities and hispanics vote, but make it very difficult at times for senior citizens to vote. >> okay, he has got his linux commissioners down there, republicans and democrats

saying, we're not going to do this. well, he can get rid of them and he'll get somebody in there who will do it? >> sure, katherine harris is unemployed. >> she'd probably dust off a few old tricks too, wouldn't she? look, this is headed towards a major legal battle. this is like florida saying, we're own ore state and we're going to do whatever the hell we want. we don't care about any federal laws you've had before. we're going to do it because we want to rig the elections, but everybody wants fair elections. that's where they are. >> it's the first report you had on this show, where romney says, obama doesn't have a jobs plan. not true. this is -- of course everybody wants to enforce the law, and of course everybody thinks only citizens should vote. there's no evidence, number one, that this is a problem. number two, their remedy throws american citizens off the voting rolls. that's why these local officials don't want to do this.

>> and scott is so callous about it, he acts like he doesn't even care. bob shrum, great to have you with us. >> thanks, ed. >> lots more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay tuned. a lot of it's modeled after -- >> 43. >> 43. and it would be nice, a little tap of the hat might be a nice thing. >> the bush boys are back and you won't believe what they're saying this time. the big panel weighs in next. 2,000 former football players drop a bombshell lawsuit on the nfl. "the nation's" dave zurin has details. and if you think cable news in america gets a little rough sometimes -- [ speaking foreign language ] >> -- wait until you see the greek version of, let's get to work.

good to have you back with us. jeb bush thinks president obama needs to give his brother more credit for setting such a good example on national security. >> a lot of it's modeled after -- >> 43. >> -- 43. and it would be nice. a little tip of the hat might be a nice thing. i think it would help him politically. >> jeb thinks w. set the standard for going after al qaeda? let's jog his memory here a little bit. >> whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. my intentions are to find those who did this, find those who encouraged them, find those who housed them, find those who comfort them, and bring them too justice. i just don't spend that much time on him. i don't know where he is. i -- i -- i repeat what i said,

i truly am not that concerned about him. >> jeb's big brother gave up on finding osama bin laden. he gave up just seven months after 9/11. president obama didn't need a role model. he got osama bin laden, and he hasn't stopped, if you look at the numbers. a drone strike killed al libi last week in pakistan. he was al qaeda's second in command. al libi is one of 18 top al qaeda commanders taken out since the president took office. maybe jeb should tip his hat to president obama instead. let's turn to our panel tonight. a number of topics to go after. joy reid with us, of thegrio.com. susan del percio, msnbc contributor, and radio talk show host, and author thom hartmann. all right, why is jeb bush bringing this up? has the president just been too successful, joy, on foreign policy? >> well, you know what, i think that there's always a little bit of a bittersweet edge whenever

jeb bush speaks about anything to do with the white house, because i think this is a man who most people believe wanted to be president, probably still wants to be president, so i think me might be now a little wistful, looking at what could have been. and he's a good defender of his big brother. but the problem for jeb bush, in a lot of ways, president barack obama has had to finish what his brother didn't. on the issue of osama bin laden, that's what the country wanted most from george bush after 9/11, he didn't do it, and didn't seem to show that much interest in it. in a lot of ways, obama has been more aggressive in fighting the so-called war on terror than bush was. >> he's certainly been more aggressive on the drone attacks, no question about it. and as far as the cyberattacks, that started again in bush's administration, and as far as going after osama bin laden, the intel that we got --

>> wait a minute, the drone attacks started during the bush administration? >> yes. >> and yet when barack obama on the campaign trail said, if i knew -- if somebody asked, if you knew that bin laden was there, would you take him out with a drone, and he said yes, and john mccain went ballistic, and said, oh, no, we don't invade pakistan. >> what i was saying, is that a lot of these things happen. now, i happen to disagree with jeb bush that politically it would be helpful, but it would be a disaster for president obama to say any of that. and i think that there is or should be respect between the president and things like this probably shouldn't be said now, but you can't question the fact that these policies started and the men and women who have carried them out on the ground have been doing a tremendous job since 9/11. >> but the drone attacks have been the most effective, have

they not? >> they absolutely have. >> and they started under bush? no, they did not. >> they started under obama. >> in an aggressive fashion, but bush was using them for surveillance. actually, it was joe biden who was pushing this policy when he was a senator. >> right. and the issue was that president bush certainly had drones in the air, but arming them was a policy specifically of the obama administration. similarly, the bin laden unit, which was closed during the bush administration, a lot of the feeling in military circles was that they were given sort of the go ahead to start to look for bin laden, but were never given the go ahead to finish the job, and got that under this president. >> i want to switch subjects here, because we're having this ongoing discussion in america, an action on municipality levels, on local levels, about what to do with public employees. on tuesday, voters in both san

dieg and san jose, california, voted to cut future worker jobs. the tenth biggest city in america has to shut down a firehouse one day a week to cope with all of these can cuts. thom, where are we going? there seems to be a narrative going on right now, especially coming from the conservatives. we've got too many public workers. they get paid too much or benefits are too good. the divide is taking place. what's happening here? >> scott walker said it very good, divide and conquer. go after the public sector workers, go after the government employees, government employees don't go anything, and you're right. get down to firefighters and they actually do do something. but san diego's an incredibly conservative, incredibly republican town. so they're all -- >> but this is a wave that's taking place now. >> and this is taking place with democrats and republicans. san jose has a democratic mayor,

san diego has a republican. you see it in new york with democratic governor cuomo and with chris christie in new jersey. the fact -- >> i mean, it's everywhere. >> it's a race to the bottom. >> but here's the issue. they have serious budget problems they have to face. and both sides, for a very long time, offered a lot of sweeteners for public union support or in some cases, with republicans, hoping that the unions wouldn't do anything, to get their votes. and really, the leadership of these unions really have to stop worrying about themselves -- >> many of them have taken cuts, though. >> the police chief of san jose retired in 2010 with a $535,000 salary. that is quite large -- >> i could tell you ceos who have got deals like that. >> but that's not what we're talking about, because that's not the problem at hand. you're talking about municipalities that have actual issues that have to meet their

budget. it has nothing to do with what a ceo -- >> so this isn't philosophical about workers, it's about a budget? is that where republicans are? >> yes, because if they could keep them happy and not have them working against them, absolutely. >> so this is all -- >> i'm sorry, i didn't mean to cut you off, but i think what's interesting is, the public sector unions that have been the most successful at negotiating large benefit packages, health benefits, et cetera, retirement, have been the police officers, who are traditionally republican, a lot of the constituencies, but these were negotiated during good economic times. now you are seeing across the board this attack, but i think what a lot of people at least on the nick side find really jarring is this idea of sort of vilifying and calling people fuzz. we are talking about cops that are patrolling our streets, a very dangerous job, we're talking about firemen and teachers.

and it doesn't feel right when at the same time the republican party is saying, almost worship ceos that are maing gar ganch yum amounts of money. >> so what's happening right now, this is the bush great recession, this is the bush great depression. if the economy wasn't in the tank right now, nobody would be having these conversations and nobody wants to talk about that. >> thom hartman, joy reid, susan, thanks for being with us tonight. george w. bush is still tanking in the polls, even though he's been out of office for three years. and things turn violent on live tv in greece. i'm so glad i work in america after seeing this videotape. stay with us. we're right pack.

new polls shows that americans don't miss george w. bush yet and his brother, jeb, says he may have missed a shot at the white house. don't forget to listen to my 127 monday through friday at 3:00 p.m. follow me on twitter @edshow and like "the ed show" on facebook. we're coming right back. has a facebook page these days. but where's the relationship status? well, esurance is now in a relationship...with allstate. and it looks pretty serious. esurance. click or call.

well, who's hot? who's not? it's not the bush brothers. they are back in the news for all the wrong reasons. former florida governor jeb bush is looking back at primary season with regret. he thinks 2012 could have been his shot at the white house. >> there's a window of opportunity in life for all sorts of reasons, and this was probably my time. although i don't know, given kind of what i believe and how i believe it, i'm not sure i would have been successful as a

candidate either. these are different times than just six years ago, when i last ran. >> they sure are. jeb's right about one thing. there's no way he could survive a primary with the crazy state of the republican party today. he went on to say that he's not ruling out a white house run in the future. meanwhile, older brother w.'s poll numbers, they're still horrible. despite being out of office for over three years, george w. bush is the most unpopular living president. a new cnn poll shows that. 54% of americans have an unfavorable view of the former president. and finally, if you think the cable food fight is bad here in the united states, take a look at what's going on in greece. [ speaking foreign language ] >> you! things got a little violent live on a political talk show. a member of the ultraright-wing neo nazi party lost his cool on left-wing politicians. police in greece issued a

warrant for the man's arrest and they are still looking for him. tonight in our survey, i asked, are republicans more concerned with the president's failure than creating jobs? 98% of you say yes, 2% of you said no. coming up, this is the largest lawsuit in sports history. and i'll tell you why 2,000 former nfl players are suing the league over workplace safety. stay with us.

and in the big finish tonight, more than 2,000 former players are part of the largest class action lawsuit in sports history. the plaintiffs say the national football league created and covered up unsafe working conditions. the lawsuit filed today says the nfl concealed information related to head injuries in football and in connection no long-term brain damage. it says the nfl deliberately and fraudulently misled players about the link between brain damage and concussions. the league said in a statement today, any allegation that the nfl intentionally sought to mislead players has no merit. former nfl fullback, kevin turner, is one of the players suing the league. he suffered long-term brain damage and does not think that the nfl took the proper precautions. >> i just, you know, wish they had, you know, looked into this and i think they probably knew

something about it, the studies were out there. >> the issue of concussions in football has intensified after a series of players committed suicide. in the past 20 years, a dozen well-known form players have taken their own lives. pro bowler junior seau was the most recent. the players sue the league, saying they have not done enough to connect the dots. dorsey levins says he has seen the effects firsthand. >> i've talked to guys in their early 40s who have already being diagnosed with dementia. i've talked to their wives, their kids. these people are human beings, and i think people lose sight of that as athletes because you make so much money. >> joining me now is john zirin, sports editor for "the nation" magazine, who's been covering this. dave, nobody made those players go out on the field. what do these players hope to accomplish here? >> one of the things they hope to accomplish is to pull the

veil back on the reality of what it means to play in the national football league. of what they and their families go through on a day-in, day-out basis. they want to be able to paint a picture for the public, not just the jury, but for the public, about an nfl that does not care about the welfare. that five years ago, its chief neurologist was a rheumatologist, and roger goodell seat in front of congress and said he didn't think the science was there to connect concussions with the kind of long-term brain injuries that people like kevin the turner suffer so terribly from. they want to pull back the veil so people can see the reality of it, and hope to get a settlement out of that and hopefully damage the nfl brand. >> what's the mood of the players? do they think they have a case here? >> i talked to boomer today and he said no one ever forced him to go on the field and he didn't

think any nfl team ever put him on the field not fit to place. >> i think what boomer is missing here, and what some other former players that object to the lawsuit are missing, is that of course you could say you would have the expectation of a knee injury or a hip injury when you go out on that field. but the idea of, i know i'm going out on that field that i will not be able to remember the names of my children when i'm in my late '40s or suffer from als, lou gehrig's disease like kevin turner, the fact that those risks were there and players were not told about those risks and the nfl had knowledge of that, that's when you get into a serious problem. >> well, common knowledge is that concussions aren't good. what did the nfl do wrong? football is a contact sport. do people go to see big hits. that's what the fans love. what are they going to do? change the game? >> that's a very good question.

and this is the specter the hangs over the nfl right now. the specter of the fear that they will turn into boxing. boxing was once the most popular sport in the united states. of course, everyone always knew, if you box, you're going to get hit in the head, you're going to get hurt. but we know so much more now about what the actual long-term effects are. and the nfl is scared that generations of parents will keep their kids from football. this year the number of players playing youth football is down by 1 million over the previous year and a lot of the analysts say it's because of more knowledge about concussions. >> that and they're playing soccer. here's another thing. the nfl wants to increase the football season by two games. i mean, i think this is just eating their young. i mean, how much can a player take in a year? it's going to take time off their career by extending the